Honey, they shrunk your cocktails.
Tiny tipples — complete with miniature garnishes and ever-so-slight buzzes — are becoming the itsy-bitsy menu stars at local bars.
At East Village gastropub Boulton and Watt, four teensy cocktails — $7 and 1 ¹/₂ ounces of alcohol apiece — come with a gimmicky, Stuart Little-sized menu and an antique-looking magnifying glass to read it.
The new petite potables are already a hit on Instagram, says Boulton and Watt’s head bartender Josh Cameron.
“We were actually joking that we should get small shakers to mix each one of them in, but that might not work on a Saturday night where there is a line of people waiting for a drink,” Cameron, who batch-makes the cocktails for efficiency’s sake, tells The Post.
Other bars have joined the trend, including the 0.75-ounce amuse-bouche cocktails served at the beginning of dinner at the new 701West in the Edition Hotel and the “Lil Sipper” slushie at Refinery Rooftop in Midtown.
But aren’t these basically souped-up shooters — à la the ever-classy buttery nipple at your average college dive bar?
Naren Young, creative director of Italian bar Dante in the Village, argues that their mini-martinis are far more refined.
“Martinis aren’t for everyone, and not everyone wants to commit to an entire one,” Young says of the $5, 2-ounce martini, garnished with caper berries. “So, you can get [your] martini fix and it allows you to try more drinks.”
But some booze pros are already hung-over this trend.
Andy Maturana, the owner of event company Rapt Hospitality, says requests for half-sized cocktails have been pouring in.
That’s fine when bartenders have time to prep and make big-batch pitchers of drinks ahead of time. But, in the moment, it’s a huge headache to measure out fractional amounts — only to have patrons gulp theirs down and come back for another moments later.
“Mini-cocktails make regular-sized enemies,” Maturana says.
Source: Read Full Article